2017 Volume 29 Issue 1 Pages 34-37
Studies regarding the changing meaning of ‘family’ in its diversifying forms have recently been accumulating in the field of family sociology in Japan. Meanwhile, today's families have been increasingly maintained and reorganized by professional interventions or social support from outside. In such a context, this symposium aims at documenting and examining the practices of professional interventions in families in three different professional worlds: mental health clinics, judicial systems, and social welfare systems. It is also intended to bring about discussion on potential new directions in the development of family sociology. In the symposium, three speeches were presented by Shin-ichi Nakamura (family therapist), Ayako Harada (law sociologist), and Naruhisa Nakane (welfare sociologist), followed by two related discussions by sociologists Josuke Amada and Hiroto Matsuki. The symposium was organized and chaired by Hiroe Izumi and Shinji Nozawa.
